Sri Lanka Customs officers opened 11 foreign postal parcels at the Central Mail Exchange in Colombo on Monday and recovered narcotics valued at about Rs. 67.53 million, sent from eight countries and left uncollected for months.
The Daily Mirror reported the seizure at 9.14 p.m. and Hiru News at 9.45 p.m. The two accounts agree on the figures, the countries and the sequence.
What was in them
- more than 3.1 kg of Kush cannabis, from Thailand, the United States and the United Kingdom — estimated value over Rs. 30.5 million
- 2,395 g of MDMA (Ecstasy) pills, from Belgium, France, Canada and Germany
- 33 g of “Mandy”, from the Netherlands
The single largest detection was a parcel from Belgium holding 2,202 g of MDMA pills, valued at an estimated Rs. 33.03 million.
The eight countries of origin are Thailand, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany.
The valuations imply a fixed per-gram rate
Neither filing gives a unit price, but the Belgian parcel supplies one exactly: Rs. 33.03 million for 2,202 g is Rs. 15,000 per gram, to the rupee. That is the rate Customs has applied to MDMA here.
The cannabis figures imply a second rate. Rs. 30.5 million against 3.1 kg works out at just under Rs. 10,000 per gram — and both numbers are stated as floors (“more than,” “exceeded”), so the true rate is at or about that round figure. It matches what this desk derived from the hashish seized from two Thai nationals at Katunayake on 15 October, where Rs. 51 million against 5,096 g gave Rs. 10,020 per gram.
The two rates also close the arithmetic. Cannabis at Rs. 30.5 million plus the Belgian MDMA at Rs. 33.03 million comes to Rs. 63.53 million, leaving about Rs. 4 million of the stated total to cover the remaining 193 g of MDMA and the 33 g of Mandy — consistent with the Rs. 15,000 rate on the pills and a higher per-gram figure on the powder. The published total is internally coherent.
Nobody has been arrested
This is the part the headline figure obscures. The parcels were identified over the past few months during routine inspections of incoming international mail by the Customs Narcotics Control Unit, then held pending collection by their intended recipients.
No recipient came for any of the 11 parcels within the stipulated period. Only then did Customs arrange to open them, and the detailed examination was carried out on 19 October by NCU officers with the Police Narcotics Bureau present.
So the consignments were addressed to real delivery addresses in Sri Lanka, and whoever was expecting them declined to claim them — which is what triggered the inspection. Neither filing reports an arrest, names an addressee, or says whether the listed addresses are being investigated.
The seized narcotics have been handed to the PNB for further investigation and legal proceedings.
A note on the listing
Both filings list “Mandy” separately from “MDMA (Ecstasy) pills” without explaining the distinction, and neither gives a value for the 33 g from the Netherlands. This article reproduces the categories as Customs issued them.
Not reported
Neither filing says how the parcels were declared, what goods they were said to contain, over exactly what period the detections ran, or how many separate addressees are involved across the 11 parcels. Neither states whether any earlier parcel from the same senders or to the same addresses was delivered successfully.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.
